Thursday, 15 November 2012

Jazz Ministers Live at Newport 1976

Electric Jive blog post number 250:Cracking
an invite to play the Newport Jazz Festival was a big dream for many
South African jazz musicians. The story goes
that the Jazz Ministers were first invited to the play in the U.S. during 1972, but the
apartheid government would not issue them with passports. Another
story has it that Port Elizabeth’s Soul Jazzmen were the first choice invite to
play Newport in 1976, and for reasons not clear, they could not make it. In the
end in June 1976, the month that Soweto erupted in protest, the Jazz
Ministers got to Newport.

An act of
defiance while in the U.S. got the JazzMinisters into trouble when they arrived back in South Africa. The
Ministers were invited to participate in the
bicentennial celebrations of US independence. They played the 52nd Street Jazz
Fair, and also at the Washington Pigfoot club.But The Ministers were not the only South Africans invited to celebrate
200 years of independence. At the behest of the Gerald Ford administration, a
South African warship was also participating in the celebrations. When the Jazz
Ministers were invited to play on the deck of the South African warship, they refused. Within hours
after arriving back in South Africa Johnny Mekoa – the founder of the band -
was detained and interrogated by the security police.

Today’s
contribution adds a rarity to the substantial Jazz Ministers discography we
have shared already. An unusual aspect of this live recording is that it
contains two songs featuring the fine voice of Victor Madoda Ndlazilwane.Johnny
Mekoa was pivotal in forming the Jazz Ministers in 1967. A 2003 article in the
City Press records that the founding members of the band were Johnny Mekoa,
alto saxophonist Aubrey Simani, tenor saxophonist Furnace Goduka, another tenor
player Duncan Madondo, pianist Boy Ngwenya (previously with the Woody
Woodpeckers), bassist Fanyana Sehloho and drummer Shepstone Sethoane.

Ndlazilwane
only joined the group in 1970. The added arranging and composing genius of
Victor Ndlazilwane propelled the band into a new and unique direction. One of
Ndlazilwane’s first recordings with the Woody Woodpeckers can be heard on this
1952 recording of “African Jazz and Variety”.

Two
1955 78rpms of the Woody Woodpeckers are included in this fantastic post from
Siemon Allen here.

In
1959 Ndlazilwane played the role of "The Journalist" in the hit show King
Kong and continued with the cast when the show was taken to London in 1961.
The Woody Woodpeckers performed at the classic 1962 Castle
Jazz Jazz Festival at Moroka-Jabavu stadium.

The
1972 album Nomvula's Jazz Dance
can be found here. Zandile
was recorded in 1975 with founding member Ngwenya back in the group. After
Victor Ndlazilwane's death in April 1978 trumpeter Johnny Mekoa assumed leadership
of the Ministers.